MOTORING and CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1421, 19 July 1917, Page 26

MOTORING and CYCLING

A most interesting letter concerning the doings of the Motor Boat Patrol has been received by Mrs. A. J. Canning, of Wellington, from her son, Motor Mechanic Douglas Pulsford, who left the Dominion with the New Zealand section last year. “I love this job,” he said, “although the hours are so long and the work so hard, but somehow the North Sea fascinates me. I have heard some tales of it, too, but even my own experiences would startle you. Talk about cold and rough. Well, it’s just too awful. I’ve seen our boat stand up like a ninepin, and the next second have her . nose five feet under a big sea. The crew laugh at my ter-ror-stricken face, but they don’t seem to have any sense of fear. They are all off trawlers and have been in the North Sea all their lives. They are really wonderful men. You should see them handle a gun. It would do your eyesight good. With all its hardships this life is splendid, and I would not be out of it for anything. To see those destroyers work, dashing in all directions like lightning, and to feel our boat almost pull from under you when we open out our engines, is worth ten years of a man’s life. There’s no doubt about the Navy. - It works like a clock, only more silently.”

At a sitting of the Wellington Mili-

tary Service Board, a motor driver appealed, and the Board dismissed the appeal, the chairman remarking that a girl could be got to do the work.

The Palmerston North Patriotic Ladies’ Guild has donated £5O to the fund for a motor ambulance for Dr. Bennett’s Serbian Hospital.

According to a Wellington message the Minister for Internal Affairs intends to introduce legislation this session dealing with the examination and the licensing of drivers of motor cars and motor cycles by local bodies.

A serious accident occurred to a party of motorists towards the Wellington end of the Taita Gorge one morning last week. The party, consisting of three men and about four women, was proceeding to the Tren-

tham racecourse in a Minerva taxi- . cab. It is stated that the driver was about to pass another car that was coming towards him. He had not sufficient room, and the outer edge of the road breaking down, he went over a 20-foot bank. The car turned two somersaults and landed on its wheels. The mer. got clear, but a Mrs. Anstice and a Miss Egan were not so fortunate. Mrs. Anstice received a fractured rib and injury to the lung, and severe shock, while Miss Egan had a rib broken. * * * * The first of the prosecutions for the use of dazzling lights on motor cars was dealt with in the Magistrate’s Court, Christchurch, last week, when several offenders were brought up.

(CONTINUED.)

The Sub-Inspector stated that the informations had been laid owing to complaints from the Riccarton Borough Council. There had been a number of such prosecutions in other places. The Riccarton police constable said that some of the lights gave a narrow beam which went straight ahead, and did not reach to the footpaths. He instanced a case in which a motor car approaching one with glaring headlights got into trouble owing to the driver’s vision being interfered with. “Is there any remedy?” asked the Magistrate (Mr. T. A. B. Bailey, S.M.). Mr. Mclntosh, city motor inspector, replied that there was any amount of so-called remedy, but the City Council had seen no remedy that could be called a success. He had in his possession a number of leaflets, giving details of certain diffusing arrangements, but this equipment ran into about £3 10s. per car, and he thought that that was too much to ask a driver to pay. If a by-law were made, something workable would have to be embodied in it. A great many cars had dimmer switches on their lamps, but they were not always used. He had no evidence of these offences with acetylene lamps. He went on to say there was an agency in town with an appliance for deflecting the light

to the ground when approaching another vehicle or pedestrian. It was mechanically operated by a lever, but he thought that if many people would not even trouble to press a dimmer switch, they certainly would not operate a lever. A driver had enough to do in controlling his car.

A cable message to the Australian papers states that in the course of a lecture on the future of aviation, Mr. E. S. Montagu, M.P. (ex-Minister for Munitions), said that the British Empire had numerous harbours and coaling stations in a favourable position for developing aviation. From London to Peshawar (India) in three days was possible, and at the rate of 1200 miles daily the voyage to Australia by aeroplane would save 24 days. Aerial police would soon be appointed to enforce traffic regulations. They would fly high, and would pounce upon malefactors and take their numbers, or compel them to descend.

“The Motor Magazine” of Canada states that the American automobile makers look to Ontario becoming the Detroit of the British Empire. This means that practically all American motor vehicle makers intending to cater for the European market will establish branch factories in Ontario. More interesting than this statement of policy, which already had been rumoured, is the reason for it, namely, the contemplated impost of a tariff on imports to Great Britain. An editorial comment on this topic remarks that “With the probability of so many

new factories in Ontario, it is more than likely that the price of automobiles in the Dominion will become more nearly equal to the prevailing values in the United States. Canada will practically have an automobile industry all her own, and with considerable protection and much local producing competition, the prices of cars should be easier. With Canada and the United States on a more equal footing with regard to automobile production, the question of duty between the two countries may become less important. . . . European tariff

walls will undoubtedly become more important . . . and . . . the Canadian automobile industry will probably flourish.”